Anthony Bourdain to Produce Documentary on Food Waste

Fans of author and Parts Unknown host Anthony Bourdain will soon have the chance to catch him on the silver screen, as the globetrotter has announced a new documentary film project. The chef will be tackling the subject of food waste with the help of some culinary giants in a documentary titled Wasted! The Story of Food Waste, Variety reports.

Co-produced by the Rockefeller Foundation and Zero Point Zero Production (the company behind the PBS culinary series The Mind of a Chef) the film will focus on the food waste epidemic, which has recently drawn increased attention and scrutiny around the United States and world. Directors Nari Kye and Anna Chai will highlight the vast amount of food that is unnecessarily tossed each year, which is estimated to be around 1.3 billion tons—a whopping one-third of all man-made food.

In recent years, food waste has become a pressing national matter, attracting the focus of celebrity chefs like Tom Colicchio, who took the issue to Congress in order to press for stricter regulations on expiration date labels. Many have suggested that confusing "sell by," "use by," and "best by" labels are partially to blame for food waste, and the Bourdain documentary will highlight this and other suspected food waste contributors.

The New York-based Rockefeller Foundation recently announced a seven-year, $130 million initiative to educate consumers and eliminate food waste, with some of these funds going towards the production of Bourdain's documentary. According to foundation president Judith Rodin, "Wasted! The Story of Food Waste will show how everyone can make changes to minimize what we throw away."

In addition to the foundation's financial support, Bourdain will also get a helping hand from a few culinary powerhouses. Mission Chinese Food chef and founder Danny Bowien, celebrated Italian restaurateur Massimo Bottura, and Blue Hill chef Dan Barber—whose WastED restaurant pop-up, serving discarded ingredients, made major waves last year—will all take part in the film.

Currently in production, the documentary is slated to make its debut in 2017. Until then, Bourdain fans will have to get their fix via the eighth season of his CNN travel docuseries and his newly released family-centric cookbook, Appetites.